Landforce’s Big Day

Landforce’s Big Day

June 1st was a big day for Landforce.  After two weeks of training and orientation, our Crew Members received their Landforce shirts and embarked upon Landforce’s first contracts.  Our orientation included a wide variety of training opportunities, including team building, learning about Landforce’s work culture, and setting personal and work-related goals.  We also learned more hands-on skills as well, including first aid, tool safety, body mechanics, and basic trail construction.

A training trip to PWSA‘s water treatment plant in Aspinwall increased our understanding of all it takes to provide clean drinking water to the people of Pittsburgh.  Throughout the year Landforce will continue to learn about the urban water cycle and how greening projects like rain gardens and bioswales can help slow and manage stormwater, while simultaneously beautifying our City.  Since “learning by doing” is one of our mantras, we also weeded and maintained two PWSA green infrastructure projects so that they can fulfill their water retention & cleaning and beautification functions.

We also spent time in Emerald View Park learning how to maintain and build trails, spending time working on rock inlays, drainage and widening trails.  This brought our work full circle – with Landforce crews working on the very first trail the Emerald Trail Corps (the program that gave birth to Landforce) constructed.

It is only fitting that our first contracts will be with the organization that founded the Emerald Trail Corps (Mount Washington Community Development Corporation) and an organization that had previously hired the Emerald Trail Corps (Allegheny Land Trust).  Early this season our crews will be maintaining and expanding the trail systems in Emerald View Park and Dead Man’s Hollow.  Stay tuned for more information about the work and our progress over the next several weeks.

You may see the Landforce team out and about in our brown (Crew Member), orange (Crew Leader) or blue (Landforce Board Member, Volunteer, or Supporter) shirts.  If you’d like a blue Landforce shirt, we’d be happy to send you one for a $20 donation (send an email to info@landforcepgh.org).

Until then, when you see our Crew Members out and about, don’t forget to ask them where they’re working and what they’ve been accomplishing.  We can assure you, they will all have interesting stories to share.